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Orwell Coat

Description

##Black and white coat made from the designer Orwell pattern in the 9.2006 issue of Burda (pattern only available through mail order from the German edition). Totally uncreative on my part- except for sizing it down and eliminating the epaulet-type seams on the sleeves, I made it exactly as shown in the picture, because I loved it so much!

##New skills learned in this project: making buttonholes, making sleeves

##Tips for others: Nearly all of the seams on this garment are raw-edged. I found it difficult to cut the thick wool fabric using scissors so that the edges were perfectly smooth and straight. If I were to make something like this again, I would invest in a cutting wheel and surface for a more professional finish.

Material Notes

Black and winter white walkloden (don’t know what that fabric is called in English, but it’s a felted knit wool with a nubby surface, a little like boucle). The white is not piping, but rather raw-edged strips of fabric. Topstitching was done with winter white cotton embroidery floss.

Thanks, I’ll check that out. It’s funny, I saw a girl wearing a very similar (shop bought) coat recently but with red edging instead of white and thought at the time how much I’d like one, and now I can!

Hi Muffin: Unfortunately I don’t know much about what patterns are available in England, but if you look at the link that I posted in my last comment, you can see that a woman took a pattern from a back issue of Burda (perhaps you can find the same issue on Ebay or in your public library?) and modified it to recreate the Orwell pattern. She gives detailed step-by-step instructions on how she did it in her blog and got beautiful results. You might be able to follow her instructions to make your own. Hope that helps- good luck!

Hi everyone— thanks for the warm compliments :) For those of you who aren’t able to get ahold of the original pattern, I found this blog entry from somone who reverse engineered the coat starting with another Burda pattern and got fabulous results: http://tanysewsandknits.blogspot.com/2007/02/costura-2007-1-casaco-orwell-2007.html
She used bias tape instead of raw fabric strips (as the pattern calls for, but which you wouldn’t know unless you actually had the pattern), which I think actually gives a more polished finish. Best of luck, and if you make one, be sure to show us the finished product!

Hi Elphaba— Thanks for the compliment. I didn’t make the pattern myself- unfortunately, I’m not that creative! It was a mail-order designer pattern that was available in the 9.2006 issue of Burda (German edition only).

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